Rotary internal-combustion engine



Nov. 17-, 1,562,299 1 A. B. CUNDY ROTARY nmrmmm COMBUSTION ENGINE FiledJ 'y 26, 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 49 Nov. 17, 1925. 1,562,299

A. B. CUNDY RGTARY INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed y 1923 3Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 17, 1925' A. B. CUNDY ROTARY INTERNAL COMBUSTIONENGINE Filed July 26, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 1 Patented Nov. 17, 1925. I

UNITED STATES- v -1, 5s2,z99 PATENT OFFICE.

ABTHURWB. CUNDY, F nunaneo, COLORADO, ASSIGNOROF FoUa-rwELFrHs'ro FRANKLAKE, .13., THRnE-rwELrrHs T0 GLEN A. STOKES, ONE TWENTY-FOURTH zro A.n. MOLLETTE, AND ONE TWENTY-FOURTH TO B. s. (ELEMENTS, ALL or DU- RANGO,COLORADO.

ROTARY INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Application filed July 26, 1923. Serial No. 654,017.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, ARTHUR B. CUNDY, asubject of the King of Great Britain. and resident of Durango,'county ofLa Plata, State of Colorado, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Rotary Internal-Combustion Engines, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The purpose of his invention is to provide a generallyimproved internalcombustion engine of the rotary type, and a distinctive feature resides,in the provision of means for effecting one or more explosions of acombustible mixture behind each of a series of pistons moving in acontinuous cir cular path.

A further featureof the invention resides in the provision of cylinderheads of novel form, comprising wall means movable across the cylinderto position the same in or out of the path of the pistons, the movementof said wall means being controlled in timed relation to the movement ofthe pistons, so as toproperly coact therewith.

A further feature of the invention resides in the provision of hollowpistons, each of which is provided with an inwardly opening inlet valveand a mechanically controlled outlet valve, the pur ose being to enablethe charge of fuel to e compressed and exploded within the interior ofthe piston, insteadi of the cylinder, as heretofore proose A furtherfeature of the invention resides in utilizing each piston forv thepurpose of scavenging the cylinder of the exhaust gases exploded withina preceding piston.

A still further feature of the invention resides in utilizing eachpiston to draw into the cylinder a charge of fuel to be compressedwithin a succeeding piston.

Other purposes and advantages of the invention as well as the particularconstruction and assemblage of parts which I have elected to discloseherein will be more readily understood from the following detailedvdescri tion and accompanying drawings.

In t e drawings: Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through thecylinder showing the construction of the rotor Fig. 2 is' a transversevertical sectional view.

Fig. 3 is a sectional View on the line 33 of Fig. 1. i

Fig. Jr-is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing certain parts in adifl'erentposition.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view 011 line 66 of Fig. 5.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 11 represents a stationaryannular cylinder, supported in upright position on suitable legs 11,andprovided with valve controlled fuel inlet ports 12 and exhaust ports13. The pistons 14, 15 and 16, operating in said cylinder, are carriedby a' rotatable dis: 17, and may be rovided with packing rings of anysuitable esign for properly engagin g the inner wall of the cylinder.These PIS- tons are of hollow construction, being each provided with acheck valve 19 at one end, and a slide valve 20 at the opposite end.Thevalve 20 of each piston is provided with slots 21 adapted to moveinto and out of registration with the complementary slots 22 formed inthe adjacent end wall of the piston, the valve being confined forsliding movement between the said end wall and suitable guide ribs 23.Each valve 20 is further provided with a stem 24, which is.

mounted-to slide in a radial bore 25 of the disk 17 and terminates atits inner end in a cross head 26, which operates in a slot 27 formed inthe disk at the inner end of bore .25. "The ends of each cross-head 26carry gear 33, which is in constant mesh with oppositely disposedpinions 34 and 35, carried by the inner ends of shafts 36 and 37.

At its outer end shaft 36 is equipped with a pinion 38 having drivingengagement with a ring gear 39 carried by a circular shell 44), which ismounted to rotate about an axis perpendicular to the shaft 30, and ispositioned to operate in slots 41 and 42 formed in cylinder 11. Shell 40revolves between suitable guides 40 and a correspondingly shaped outershell 43, which, in turn is rotatably mounted within an outer casing 44,secured to the cylinder 11 in any approved manner. The outer shell 43 isprovided at the top with a ring gear 45 adapted to be driven through theinstrumentality of intermeshing gears 46 and 47 carried by shafts 48 and49. At its lower end, shaft 49 is keyed to shell 40. lVith thisparticular form of gearing, it will'be manifest that the'rotation ofshaft is utilized to rotate the shells and 43 in opposite directions, soas to cause slots or piston passages 51 and 52 formed in said shells topass into and out of registration during rotation of the latter.

Shaft 37 is provided at its outer end with a pinion 38 meshing with aring gear 39 carried by a rotatable shell 40 corresponding to the shell40 previously described.

The shell 40 revolves between guides41 and a correspondingly shapedouter shell 43 housed within a casing 44 corresponding to theaforementioned casing 44, and the said shells 40 and 43" are gearedtogether through the instrumentality of the ring gear 45 and pinions 46-and 47. These shells 40 and 43 are provided with piston passages 51 and52, corresponding to the aforementioned passages 51 and 52 of shells 40and 43. The pair of shells housed within each of the casings 44 and 44constitute, in eifect, rotatable cylinder heads, designated generally byreference characters A and B, and operated by the gearing described inconnection therewith to move in timed relation to the movement of thepistons, the

apertured portions of each pair of shells being periodically broughtinto registration within the bore of cylinder ll to permit the piston tomove therethrough, solid portions of the shell being subsequentlypresented to the piston to cooperate therewith in the manner of acylinder head, as subsequently-- set forth in greater detail.

Each of the pistons 14,15 and 16 is provided with a spark plug 53connected bya suitable lead 54 to a contact brush 55, which is carriedby the inner end of a rod 56. The

several rods 56 are disposed in substantial parallelism with the shaft30 and are mounted to slide through suitable openings formed in asupporting plate 57 bolted to one side 'of the disk 17. At its outer endeach rod may be threaded through the outer ends of the governor arms tocontact with the plate 57 and thereby limit the swinging'movementinclined with respe'ctto the axis of the disk 64, so that the engagementofsaid strips with the brushes 55gwill be retarded or advanced accordingto the direction of sliding movement imparted to the. said brushes bythe operation of the governor arms 58.

' On referringto Fig. 1, it will be observed that the bore, of thecylinder is partitioned off by the shells 40 and 43 of"v the cylinderhead A and the shells 40 and 434.015 the cylinder head B to provide apair of. oppositely disposed compression chambers CD p and a pair ofintervening chambersfjE F In explaining the operation of jthe engine,-we will, assume that the parts are, disposed,

as shown in Fig. 1,,and that the shaft 30 i is, rotating in a clockwisedirection. a As the piston 14 reaches the exhaust port 13, the

shells 40 and 43 will have been rotatedto such a position thatthe-piston passages 51 and 52 of said shells are alined with-one another within the bore ofthejcylind'er 1.11am

between the upper ports 12 and l3, ,thereby permitting piston 14 topassgintolthe compression chamber C. As soon as the piston passes intothis chamber, the openings 51 v and 52 are moved out of registration bycontinned rotation of shells 40' and 43, thus bringing solid portions ofsaid shellinto position directly-behind the piston, The

continued movement of the piston 14within the cofnpres sionfchamber' Cserves to. create. --a suction in's'aid'chamber betweenthe; rear end ofthe piston and the opposing-solid.

portions of the shells 40 and "43flW1thfthe result that aninitialchargeof explosive mixture is drawn into-chamber. C through the inletport12 positioned in said chamber.

It will be noted, in this connectiony. that during the movement of thepiston through the chamber C, the rollers-28 are travelling along'theoffset portioirk-QQ?" of the cam groove 29, so that the "slotsof thevalve 20 are disposed out ofjregistrationwith the slots in the piston,soas.tocloselthe-rear end of the-latter. vA1; the tim r"-ch trpi to 14reaches theright handend of; chamber C,

the shells 40 and 43 will have rotated a complete revolution, thusbringing-Lillie piston passages 51 and 52 into" registration at this endof the compression chamber to permit the-piston to escapetherefrom andto "enter the combustion chamber-F. As the-piston 14 moves through thesaid combustion, cham ber F, the continued rotation 40. and 43 causes.the passag, again register with one an'otl ports 12 and 13 or in otherof f the shells trance end of the compression-chamber-Q13 so that thepiston now passes into the said compression chamber, to compress thecharge left therein by the preceding piston This charge being compressedby advancement of piston 15,, against the solid portions of the shells10 and 43, at the discharge end of chambenC is caused to pass into theinterior ,ofthe pistonthrough the valve '19 tofbe entrapped thereinuntil the piston escapes from the chamber C .through the passages 51 and52, when the latter are brought into registration at the discharge endof said chamber. During this movement of piston 15 through chambersG itwill be evident that the vacuum occurring between the rear or theretreating end of the piston and the opposing solid portions of theshells 40 and .43 will serve'to draw a second charge of fuel, into thecompression chamber C to be entrapped tliereinforcompression by thefollowing piston 16. As the piston 15 with its contained charge passesfrom the chamber C, the-continued rotation ofthe shells40 and 43 causessolid portions of the latter to be 'presented behind or-opposite therear end'of'the piston, and, at this moment, the rollers 28 carried bythe stem 24 of the piston valve 20 pass out of engagement' ,with ',theoffset portion 29 of the cam groove 29, so asto bring 'the openings 21of said valve in registration in the openings 22 of the piston to permitthe said charge to escape from the piston. At or before the instant thecharge is thus permitted to escape from the piston, it is exploded bymeans of the spark plug 53, as the-arrangement of the brushes 55 is suchthat the brush ofthe ]piston 15 will, at this particular moment, 1 inconstant with v one of the elements 63. The impact resulting from theexplosion of the charge against the solid portions, Ofthe shells 40. and43 closing the discharge end 'of chamber C will serve to 'im el thepiston 15 through the combustion c amber F in the direction of thesecond compression chamber D.

From the foregoing explanation, "it Will be apparent that as each pistonenters elther the compression chamber 0 orthe chamber D, it serves tocompress and entrap the charge of fuel left in said chamber bythepreceding piston, and at the same time also serves to draw into the saidchamber a fresh charge of mixtureto be left therein for com-; pressionby a succeeding piston. It will alsobe apparent that each piston as itis driven through either the" explosion chamber E or the chamber F willserve to expelfrom said chamber the products of combustion' left by apreceding piston, such products of combustion being driven outwardlythrough the exhaust ports 13. An important feature to be noted here isthat the com- 1 bustion chambers are made considerably longer than thecompression chambers in or-.

hers, the shells of each pair being b y rought ing a drive shaft.carrying said der to provide for a material reduction in the pressureof the expanded fuel prior to discharge of the latter through the ports13.

-Preferably, the length of the combustion chambers is such that thepressure of the expanded fuel will be approximately equal to that of theatmosphere at the instant of discharge. The relative operation of thepistons, and the shells of the movable cylinder heads A and B, as wellasthe functioning of the ignition means, is so timed,'by the mechanismherein disclosed or in any other suitable manner, to permit theafore-men- ,tioned operation to be carried out as de scribed and withoutmaterial loss of compression. Vvith this particulardesign of engine, itwill be manifest that great power is developed, owing tothe fact thatthree pistons are provided, together with means for imparting twodistinct driving impulses :tloi each during a single rotation of thedisk Having thus fully described my invention, it is to be understoodthat I am notto be limited to the exact details disclosed herein, butmay clothe the novel principles disclosed in any desirableembodiment,'fallin within the scope and spirit of the appende claims. I

therewith a pair of compression chambers separated by interveningcombustion champrovided with slots adapted to be alternate intoregistration at opposite ends of the compression chamber to permit thepistons to pass into and out of the. same, fuel inlets .communicatingwith said compression chamber, exhaust "passages leading fromsaid'combustion chambers, and means acting automatically to hold theoutlet valve of each piston closed during movement of the piston'through said-"compression chambers and to permit opening o said valveupon escapeof the piston fromsald compression chambers. 7

2. A structure according to claim" 1 in which the shells of eachcylinder head are I geared to one another and to a drive shaft carryingsaid piston. I

3. A structure according to claim- 1 in which the shells of eachcylinderhead are driven in opposite directions. f 4.-A structureaccording to claim 1 includiston and means gearing the shells of eacicylinder head to one another and to the drive shaft.

, mally open circuits including said plugs and means controlled bymovement of the pistons for closing said circuits successively.

6. A structure according to claim 1, ineluding spark plugs carried bysaid pistons, a drive shaft to which said pistons are rigidly secured, adisc fixed to said shaft, inclined contact strips carried by said discs,a brush engageable with said strips to successively close circuitsincluding said plugs,

and means for shifting said brush longitudinally of the shaft to varythe time of contact between the brush and the inclined strips.

7, The combination, in a rotary engine, of

an annular cylinder, a slotted rotary shell intersecting said cylinderand forming a combined compression chamber and piston head, a fuel inletcommunicating with the cylinder internally of said shell, an exhaustpassage communicating with said cylinder externally of said shell, ahollow piston movable in said cylinder, an inlet valve at the frontendof the piston, an outlet Valve at the rear end of the piston, controlmeans for the outlet valve acting automati cally to maintain the valveclosed during movement of the piston through the said shell and topermit opening of the valve as the piston escapes from the shell, andmeans for igniting a charge of fuel compressed into the piston duringits passage through said shell.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my 7 signature.

ARTHUR B. 'CUNDY.

